U.S. to unveil $15,000 visa bond for visitors

The United States has announced plans to launch a pilot program that would require some inbound travellers to pay bonds of up to $15,000 to enter the country.

The U.S. could require bonds of up to $15,000 for some tourist and business visas under the program launching in two weeks, a government notice said on Monday, August 4, 2025.

The 12-month program is aimed, in part, at visitors from countries with historically high visa overstay rates, according to a temporary final rule posted in the Federal Register on Tuesday.

Bonds could also be applied to people coming from countries where screening and vetting information is deemed insufficient, the notice said.

It’s the latest move by the United States President Donald Trump administration to tighten immigration laws in the U.S., following a travel ban on nationals from 12 countries in June and a $250 “visa integrity fee” announcement in July.

Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a focus of his presidency, boosting resources to secure the border and arresting people in the U.S. illegally.

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He issued a travel ban in June that fully or partially blocks citizens of 19 nations from entering the U.S. on national security grounds.

Trump’s immigration policies have led some visitors to skip travel to the United States. Transatlantic airfares dropped to rates last seen before the COVID-19 pandemic in May and travel from Canada and Mexico to the U.S. fell by 20% year-over-year.

Effective August 20, the new visa program will last for approximately a year, the government notice said.

Consular officers will have three options for visa applicants subjected to the bonds: $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000, but will generally be expected to require at least $10,000.

The funds will be returned to travellers if they depart in accordance with the terms of their visas, the notice said.

A similar pilot program was launched in November 2020 during the last months of Trump’s first term in office, but it was not fully implemented due to the drop in global travel associated with the pandemic.

A State Department spokesperson listed the criteria that will be used to identify the countries that will be affected, adding that the country list may be updated.

“Countries will be identified based on high overstay rates, screening and vetting deficiencies, concerns regarding acquisition of citizenship by investment without a residency requirement, and foreign policy considerations,” the spokesperson told Reuters.

The State Department was unable to estimate the number of visa applicants who could be affected by the change.

Many of the countries targeted by Trump’s travel ban also have high rates of visa overstays, including Chad, Eritrea, Haiti, Myanmar, and Yemen.

The Star